Wednesday, 31 December 2008

The meanings of Shariff and Said titles

The above are the best explanations of the titles that I've everheard. Before this, I only listen to holders of this title but theirexplanations fall short.

I used to think that these are meaningless titles but now I realisethat they are very important indeed. We should not forget ourancestors that easily.

Based on the above wiki articles, it is obvious that these titles weregiven to Arabs and their descendents but they were given to maledescendents only.

Shari'ful Hashem Syed Abu Bakar was the first Sultan of Sulu on hismarriage to a local Rajah but what was obvious is that he is an Araband his knowledge of Islam was good.

Although his father's name is a Syed, he subsequently uses the Shariftitle to indicate that he is a descendent of Hassan, instead ofHussin.

In India, Syed/Said is used to address any Arab or descendents ofArabs. Even in Malaysia, there are many Saids but as pointed out byone West Malaysian friend, these titles were used by those with IndianMuslim ancestry which means that they may not be directly descendedfrom Prophet Muhammad. We can easily find out from their physicalfeatures.

In Sabah, I know of one Arab descendent who use the Said title and hischildren are all called Habib. They call their children with thetitles Habib but when they grow up, they are supposed to be calledSaid but since their birth certificates are already written as Habibs,they remain that way until they grow up.

In Sabah, as in the Philippines, the Shariff title is more common andwidely quoted in history books. There are also monuments dedicated tothese Shariffs and they tend to be sacred to Muslims which made mewonder earlier on that they were just pious Muslims who have doneconsiderable service to the Muslim community.

Because the first Sulu Sultan was a Sharif, most probably theseSharifs are related one way or another. It is just that we have losttract of our ancestors. What remains are just these titles but sinceonly the male descendents were given these titles, many others havelost their ancestry links.Those that still keep these titles are mostprobably related to Hassan or at least with Arabic ancestry.

Even without these titles, we cannot run away from our features. Manyhad pretended not to have these titles because they will be condemnedif they are breaking Islamic rules such as drinking and womanising, soit is safe to note that only pious Muslims will want to maintain thesetitles in order to show respect to Prophet Muhamamd, our reveredleader.

Even if were are not, these titles will keep us on the straight pathand can be used by the community to curse us. In fact we are alreadycursed with examples such as the high mortality rate among my unclesas proof of it. Out of 13, only 5 survived for abandoning thesetitles. The reason why my grandparents refused to acknowledge thesetitles was their early deaths and therefore the overall poverty of thefamily. All my uncles are pious so hiding these titles in order tocommit sins are not the reasons. It is more of a case of humility orjust the early death of their parents.

My wife's case is differnt. Her grandmother was a Sharifah so my wifeshould be given the title of Siti but her parents didn't register it.Since genetic materials can be passed down from either father ormother, and in fact, Hassan and Hussin are descended from Fatimah, thedaughter of Prophet Muhamamd, it is silly to consider only the Malegenetic line. I shall encourage our children to use the Sharif andSharifah titles at least as footnotes. Once it is recorded in thewww.geni.com, it should be easy to trace and remember.

It is not necessary to insert in birth certificates. Many ignorantMalays have already used these titles as their names instead of justtitles, making it very hard for us to determine their real ancestry.Many have used Siti, Said, Saidah, Sharifah, Shariff as theri namesbut we can always determine their ancestry lines by their features andgeneology. We can even verify using DNA tests.

Muslims in Malaysia, especially Sabah, have begun to forget ourancestry because our preachers have deemphasised ancestry lines asshirik and not important at all. It is true that someone's worth isdetermined by their deeds, not their ancestry, but it is theresponsibility of all descendents to remember their parents andtherefore their ancestors.

If we disobey these fundamental laws of nature, we shall pay for it inthe end, such as the lack of information on diseases. I'm beginning tosee common diseases among my family such as gastric, gaut, asthma andrespiratory diseases. It will help us diagnose diseases quickly if wecan compile a list of these diseases and their links to our geneticlines.